San Jose city clerk says pot referendum qualifies then says 'not so fast'

Early Tuesday afternoon, the San Jose City Clerk's Office announced that medical marijuana activists had turned in enough valid signatures to qualify a referendum on the city's recently approved pot club regulations, setting up a City Council decision in two weeks on whether to put the new rules to a public vote.

A few hours later, however, the clerk essentially said, "Not so fast."

Who was at fault for the about-face depended on whom you asked.

"We got some bad information," City Clerk Dennis Hawkins said. Santa Clara County elections officials "told me this morning that the petition had the sufficient number of signatures to qualify, but then when we got their data, we reviewed it and saw that they had not completed it properly."

Going forward, he said, "we'll make sure everything is verified and certified before we bring it to the council."

Interim Registrar Elaine Larsen, however, said her office provided only raw numbers to the clerk and didn't make any claim the petition qualified the referendum.

"We did not make that decision," Larsen said. "We just gave him the numbers."

In any case, Hawkins said, the registrar now will have 60 working days from Oct. 28, when the petitions were submitted, to verify every signature.

Told of the snafu, James Anthony, chairman of the Citizens Coalition for Patient Care (which raised $200,000 in a month for the petition drive), said he hadn't seen the new data but that "if that is the case, we are confident of the 49,000 signatures we submitted. We have more than the sufficient number."

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Activists began collecting signatures for a referendum as soon as the ink dried on the marijuana rules the council adopted in September. The rules would reduce the number of San Jose pot clubs from more than 100 to just 10, as well as require them to grow all their marijuana on site.

Activists argue that the rules would effectively put them out of business by forcing them to create marijuana superstores that would invite federal drug raids.

Until Tuesday's mistake surfaced, the council was to have certified the petition results at its next regular meeting on Nov. 29. It was then scheduled to decide Dec. 6 whether to repeal the pot law or put the referendum on the ballot June 5 or in a special election.

Now, Hawkins said, he doesn't believe his office will be able to bring the petition to the council until early January.

Mayor Chuck Reed earlier this month recommended that the city let voters decide whether to keep the new pot law and that the council raise the marijuana tax from 7 percent to 10 percent for a year to cover the cost of the election, which Reed says would cost about $1 million.